Genuine Service at CCB------Some side notes on CCB’s Full-strength Services

  With the Olympic flame fiercely burning in Beijing, the world’s attention turns to China. With the spirit represented by the five rings on the Olympic flag, in the arena of Olympic financial services, the staffs in CCB are providing quality services to local and foreign customers, earning their warm praise and displaying a desirable image of the China banking industry.

 

Messages of Thankfulness

CCB Beijing Branch organized an elite youth team of foreign languages effective incident response, to ensure staffs in the network render foreign language service as expected prior to and during the Olympic Games, according to source. After undergoing intensive foreign language training in the branches, the team selected 82 elites as a youth English service league sub-branch, receiving further training in English in financial services and foreign etiquette. They later split into 25 small teams and are responsible for foreign language services in key branches for the Olympics.

In CCB, there is no barrier in communication and exchange. In sub-branches that involve less foreign business, effective services can also be provided smoothly to foreign customers in a short time, owing to the careful preparation for the services during the Games by the Bank.

“We sincerely thank your bank’s staff for their excellent service. Your bank and its staff have provided us comprehensive and attentive assistance, making us feel very welcome. This is my first time travelling in China and it would be a life-long memory.”—Shown

This is a message in English noted by a reporter in the guest book in the Beijing Xisi Sub-branch. The thankfulness expresses is very touching. On August 10^th at 10 am, more than thirty foreign customers visited the sub-branch in Xi Chang’An Avenue. Floor Manager Tian Qiang greeted them with a warm “May I help you?” After realizing that seven of them need to exchange their US dollars into Renminbi, Tien immediately drew tickets from the Queue System for the customers and opened one more Currency Exchange Service counter. Meanwhile Customer Service Manager Chen Siying approached and communicated with the rest of the foreign customers in English. Knowing their plan to go to the Lotus Market to purchase props for their cheerleading team, Chen wrote down for them the most convenient bus route and transfer, and sketched a simple map marking prominent landmarks in English. Jia Ning from the counter performed smooth communication with the customers in his fluent business English. After 10 minutes, the Bank handed the customer the exchanged US$4000-worth Renminbi smoothly. The customers regarded highly the staffs’ outstanding language proficiency and excellent service. Shown, one of the customers, said this was the first time he visited CCB, and also the first time he visited a local bank in China. The Bank’s perfect service would become a life-long memory.

In order to ensure highly effective services in foreign currency business, to foreign visitors, since February, CCB assigned almost 3000 staffs in its branches in the Beijing region with professional training in personal currency exchange business services, identification and advancing of travellers cheques, visitor identity verification, foreign currency anti-counterfeit discrimination, counter troubleshooting skills, attending to abnormalities in foreign credit card acquiring services. Staff participation rate reached 100%. These practices greatly enhanced counter staff’s skills in providing foreign exchange business services.

 

Moved by Care

A contingency plan is a necessary measure in assisting customers to complete their business under emergencies; it has also become one major component of CCB’s Olympic services of the Bank. CCB is establishing and optimizing various emergency response plans and starting comprehensive practices. It is learnt that CCB has established contingency plans for currency exchange services, financial products sales, fund transfer across the branches, security, media reception, etc., as well as reporting line for matters related to the Games. Responsible staff can be contacted and situations encountered by customers can be communicated and dealt with.

On August 9th at 4pm, a French customer rushed into the Shouti Southern Road sub-branch with an "all-in-one" deposit book, requesting for Euro withdrawal and remittance. The customer’s deposit book is opened in Guiyang City, and withdrawal in another city is not feasible. Shaking head and saying “No”, the customer failed to understand the situation and demanded the business to be done. Considering the difficulty this foreign friend might indeed encounter in a foreign land, the staff in CCB made special arrangements under the prerequisite of abiding by the laws and regulations, immediately initiating an emergency response plan for currency exchange services by contacting directly the currency exchange services officer in the Beijing branch and contacts in Guizhou branch where the sub-branch in which the customer’s account was opened is located. The Beijing branch thus created a new account for the customer and transfer the fund in Euro to it from the Guizhou branch. Soon the business was completed and the customer gladly said, “Thank you very much. China Construction Bank is so kind!”

It is learnt that in order to ensure the contingency plans can be put smoothly into practice, since June 1st, CCB initiated round-the-clock maintenance and monitoring in the of self-service facilities, assigning serial numbers to the more than 1,100 self-service facilities in the Beijing region, so as to detect and solve any problem in the most efficient and accurate manner. Since the commencement of the Games, the function rate of the self-service facilities maintained at 99% and running rate at over 96%.

CCB’s transaction environment for the Games has improved prominently. Till the end of July, CCB Beijing branch banking promissory shops increased to 264% of that of last year, up to 2,567shops, and with point of purchase increasing to 2,886. Banking card payment nearby the Olympic stadiums, major streets and areas, tourist and scenic spots has shown satisfactory progress. Local and foreign currency service covers 90% of the promissory shops. Aappreciative criticisms are received from the Beijing City leading group of Olympic baking card payment approach.

  

Response with Genuine Affection

       Decided to test the attentive and full service prepared by CCB for the Olympics, the reporter left an English message enquiring Internet fund transfer service on the “Contact Us” section in the English website of the Bank, disguising as a client from the USA. In less than ten minutes, a reply in English was received from the Bank, explaining in detail the relevant operation procedure, which to the reporter was a nice surprise. Upon surfing the message left by overseas customers, it could be noted that the majority of the contents included, loss reporting, account access, remittance, etc. CCB responds to these overseas messages everyday by the staff’s immediate replying in the corresponding language, in order to ensure timely feedback via the Internet and therefore a comprehensive banking services before the customer leaves their door.

       It is learnt that CCB has established a communication system through various channels, in the attempt to provide satisfactory services to local as well as overseas   customers. While one of which is the “Contact Us” service on its Website, the Bank’s exclusive 95533 customer service centre has provided 24-hour agent service, and since last year, the Bank introduced English-speaking voice self-service and English-speaking staff service. Upon calling 95533 and once connected, the customer can select preferred language and can be put through to 95533 English-speaking services. CCB has also internal support hotline in every branch. With this hotline, staffs can have dedicated stuff to provide backup support with multilingual service support, including English, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Korean, etc. A three-party conversation can be carried out simultaneously between the customer, the banking staff and the multilingual service assistance, solving the customers’ problems. CCB’s customer service centre provides the most comprehensive multilingual services among those of the country’s commercial banks.

 

The reported visited CCB’s multilingual service support team, the office was very busy with telephones ringing one after another. There were an English-speaking customer inquiring the regulations of processing fee charging for drawing funds from bank card of Bank of America; a Japanese-speaking customer called to inquire processing time required for remittance, and a Russian-speaking customer needed guidance in paying International calling fees through Internet banking. Meanwhile, a Japanese customer calling from Yunan reported that his card was withdrawn by the automatic teller machine after he drew money from it. In fluent Japanese, one of the agents from the Bank revised with the customer the operating procedure, learned of the bank that issued the card and the location of the ATM, and advised the customer to contact the card-issuing bank to report missing verbally. As the customer expressed his wish to retrieve he card on the same day, the agent immediately contacted the staff in Yunan who said would immediately verify the case and contact the customer directly to resolve the situation. The customer was very pleased with this arrangement.

 

CCB strives to seize the Olympic moment to lift the standards of management, operation and service by providing quality services as a golden opportunity. As genuine customer service becomes the Bank’s faith, the goal to innovative service becomes the Bank’s motivation and attentive service becomes natural, providing services can become a happy business. With the spirit represented by the five rings on the Olympic flag, the staffs in CCB are embracing the Games with passion and readiness in full, displaying a wonderful grace in the new banking “arena”.